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Most German cars of this era had VDO clocks, but this Dasher (aka Passat) has a cool-looking MotoMeter. Photo by Murilee Martin

Car Clock of the Week: 1980 Volkswagen Dasher

A nice analog clock from MotoMeter, pulled from a first-gen Passat

June 20, 2018

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Our previous Car Clock of the Week was an Infiniti Q45 timepiece that looked like a wealthy gangster's wristwatch, and we mean that as a compliment. This week, we'll take a look at an elegant large-face clock right out of the West German Wirtschaftswunder: a MotoMeter unit yanked from a 1980 Volkswagen Dasher.

I didn't expect this clock to work, but it did. Photo by Murilee Martin

Those of you outside North America will recognize this car as a first-generation Passat, which was badged as a Dasher on this side of the Atlantic; the next-generation Passat was sold as a Quantum in North America, with the Passat name not appearing on these shores until the 1989 model year. The clock was still intact, and I was startled when I hit it with the juice from my junkyard car-clock-testing battery pack and it started ticking. Sure, it has a quartz movement, but life in a dashboard is a rough one for sensitive electronics.

MotoMeter was absorbed by Bosch in the early 1990s, and the brand is owned today by IVEKA Automotive Technologies. Photo by Murilee Martin

This is the only MotoMeter clock in my extensive junkyard-harvested collection; most European cars of the 1960-1980 period came with clocks by VDO, Jaeger, Veglia, or Kienzle. It's not a self-contained gauge, being intended for installation within an instrument cluster that provides lighting and a clear cover, so it would be something of a hassle to install it in one of my homemade car-parts boomboxes.

The diesel engine went to the crusher, but not the clock. Photo by Murilee Martin

Still, I couldn't resist the urge to purchase this little piece of European automotive history and add it to my stash-o-car-clocks.